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by homestuckproblematic



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, F/F, I don't know, M/M, there will probably be more characters and relationships added later, this will also be sad probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 21:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4279161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homestuckproblematic/pseuds/homestuckproblematic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Demons have plagued the minds of children, causing nightmares and dark thoughts, but they were never thought to be real. Everybody blamed them, but nobody truly believed in them. They were only the metaphorical explanation for everything evil that went on inside of a person’s mind, but it was only a word made up for mystical, evil beings. </p><p>Everybody believes in them now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Demons have plagued the minds of children, causing nightmares and dark thoughts, but they were never thought to be real. Everybody blamed them, but nobody truly believed in them. They were the metaphorical explanation for everything evil that went on inside of a person’s mind, but it was only a word made up for mystical, evil beings. 

Everybody believes in them now.

A rift was created, and demons began pouring from it. The demons spoke of a place called Derse, though the humans knew it better as hell. They spoke of how grateful they were for a woman they called the Condesce. She was responsible for creating and maintaining the rift between worlds. She had the assistance of a great Lord of Time, a demon by the name of Lord English. Most humans are killed shortly after hearing this information first hand. 

There are those that were prepared to fight against the demons. They knew how to fight and how to survive on their own. Those people are few and far between. Most that have made it long in this twisted apocalypse have made it by luck, usually without all of their family.

The luckiest were the children. They had adults that cared about them. Parents or guardians. They gave whatever they could to protect their children. Most of the time, it was their lives. Half of the world’s gradually decreasing population is made up of orphaned children. Most of them are too young to survive on their own. These orphans are found often, but are rarely taken in. One more mouth to feed, one more body to protect. It isn’t worth it. They die within a month. A lot of them come back as demons of their own.

The world is no longer safe, and there is no one to trust.


	2. Chapter 1

==>

You remember the day the demons came. 

You’re lucky to be raised the way that you were. You’re lucky to have the parents that you do. If it wasn’t for them, none of you would be alive. Bro has been teaching you and your brother the ways around several weapons since you were five. Mom taught your sisters. You always thought it was just for fun, which it was, until they arrived at your doorstep. You always thought it was ironic, the apocalypse. People had always thought it would be a plague, the sun blowing up in our faces, or even zombies. Nobody saw demons coming. Bro still teases you about it, about how your ‘inner demons’ are suddenly real. Shallow humor to keep all of you going. But those are long gone by now anyway. You have more things to worry about. 

It was the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday. It was April, it was fairly nice outside, and you were sitting at your turntables in your room. You could hear the screams, even above the volume of your headphones. At first it was only one, but then another came, and another. It quickly became a very haunting chorus. You were confused until you looked out your window. From the high view of your apartment, you could see bodies dotting the streets, lying in pools of red. The cause was no where to be seen.

Then something caught your eye. There was a shadow walking down the street, but it’s shape was barely human. Someone was trying to run away, but there was too much blood coming from him. The shadow closed the distance quickly, more quickly than any man should have been able to. It plunged it’s hand into the man’s back, ripping out his spinal chord. The scream was deafening, even from your height. There was so much blood. You quickly ran to the nearest trash can in your room and puked in it. Once you were done emptying your lunch, you sought to find Bro. 

The first person you came across in the hallway was Rose. She had a terror in her eyes that had never been there before. It didn’t belong on her. The two of you both ran in the same direction, towards Bro’s workroom. You weren’t surprised to see everyone else already there. Bro didn’t look up from his computer as he started to explain what the hell was going on. You only remember hearing bits and pieces, random facts. You couldn’t get that man’s death out of your head.

Demons, escaping from the deepest depths of Derse. The apocalypse. He knew all about them. He had been working to stop them. Normally they were invisible to the human eye. Special glasses, equipped with the ability of being able to see the shadows of demons. They were disguised as sunglasses. Now the girls wear them, too. No wonder Bro had told you to wear them all the time. No wonder you had seen one of these strange shadows before. 

Almost anything that could kill a human could kill a demon. Drowning was not one of those things. Mom and Bro knew this might happen. No wonder they had taught you all to fight.

You all fought for your lives that day. You fought everyday. You still fight. You watched as the world crumbled, almost everything a wasteland of fallen buildings. Demons are everywhere, and they could do almost anything. The only thing they haven’t accomplished is possession. Depending on how old the demon is, they can morph themselves to look like the ones you love, but that hasn’t fooled your family yet. You’ve survived four years of this, but you don’t know just how much longer you can take.

“Dave,” a voice says, snapping you out of the past. You look up to find Rose in front of you, holding out a bowl of what looked like soup. You take it from her, eating it slowly. Savoring it. You haven’t had a meal this large to eat in a day and a half at least, let alone a warm one. When you finish, you leave the bowl on the ground and walk over to where the rest of your family is seated around a table. You can see rain pounding at the windows of the abandoned house you decided to stay in until the storm ends.

“-think we should go north to Nebraska,” Mom is saying as you sit down at the table. “Plenty of crop that should be ready for harvesting soon.”

“You keep forgetting that we need to stay close to the south, Mom,” Rose says. You can tell she wants to roll her eyes. “We can’t be in the north for winter.”

“Sorry, sorry. Where do you suggest we go?” Mom asks.

“I suggest we stay right here in New Mexico,” Rose says. There’s a slight tone of sarcasm on her tongue. “I know you want to move, so we can compromise. We’ll stay in New Mexico, but we’ll move west. Perhaps we could cross into Arizona. It doesn’t matter much to me, as long as we stay close.”

“No offense or anything, but isn’t that kind of a bad idea?” Bro asks. “This is almost all desert. I don’t see why we should stay.” 

This time Rose actually sighs and rolls her eyes. “We’re in the mountains, not the desert. Besides, we’ve done better here than we have anywhere else. We’ve had more food, we’ve come across less people wanting to steal that food, and we’ve come across less demons. We’ve been here for three weeks, and we’ve only fought two demons. That alone should say something. I have a feeling most of the demons here are all concentrated to Death Valley. Both of the demons we fought seemed to be heading west. If we move too much farther away, there will be more demons. However, there is also the chance of getting too close to Death Valley and being overrun with them. We are probably in the safest place we can get.”

Mom sighs. She obviously lost this fight. “Okay, I see your point. We’ll move to another development further west. We can try to settle there, if it’s of interest to any of you. I know I’m ready to find a house and lay low for a while. That last demon did tell us that their Condesce found special interest in us. I don’t want to peak that interest any more than it is.”

“Perfect,” Bro says. “Kids, go get some sleep. We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning. It should be done raining by then. Your mom and I need to talk about a few adult things.”

“We’re adults, Bro,” you remind him.

“Fine, bad choice of words. Adults ages seventeen to twenty one, go get some sleep. We need to talk about some forty year old things,” he says, looking pointedly at the four of you. A collective sigh comes from all of you, and you walk up the stairs. Leaving the master bedroom for your parents, you split in two and go to the two other bedrooms. The bed is a queen, big enough for the two of you to sleep in. You’re glad to be sleeping on a real mattress again. It had been months on sleeping on concrete floors before you found this desolate town, small as it is. This is the biggest house, and it’s barely big enough for your family of six. But hey, you’ll take whatever you can get these days.

“Hey, Dave?”

“Yeah, Dirk?”

There’s a pause before he continues. “Do you ever miss it? How life was before all this demon shit?”

You nod, though you know he can’t see you. “Yeah, I do. A lot, actually. All those things I used to worry about seem so petty compared to what we have to deal with now.”

He hesitates before saying, “I used to dream of things like this. Well, I guess they were nightmares. Demons were everywhere, all the time. The only thing that’s different between now and those dreams are the cities. Everything was purple in those dreams. The buildings, the streets, even the clothes. But the demons, they’re the same.” He takes a deep breath before continuing, “I’ve seen some of these demons before. I’ve met them. That’s why some have said that they know me. I’ve seen them, and they’ve seen me. I wish it would go back back to when those really were just dreams.”

“Have you told Bro?” you ask after a while. He scoffs.

“Are you kidding me? Bro would laugh in my face if I told him that. He’d either say I’m crazy, or I’m crazy,” He laughs again. “Not even sure why I told you. You probably think I’m crazy now, too. Whatever. Night, Dave.”

“You might be crazy, you might not be. I don’t know. Night, Dirk.” 

==>

You’re walking through a street of purple. Demons are walking all around you, but they don’t seem to be paying any attention to you. They see you, but they’re not trying to kill you. You keep walking, though you’re not sure where you’re going. You swear that you see Dirk on the other side of the street, but something painful erupts in your side. 

“Long time no see, David Strider,” a voice hisses in your ear. You turn your head to see the shadow of a very familiar demon, his hand holding a knife that is buried deep in your side. He’s the same demon you saw on that fateful day in April, ripping out the spine of another man. 

“How do you know my name?” you ask through gritted teeth. 

“Oh, I know a lot of things about you,” he draws out slowly. “Your family is the only family known to survive as a whole. Do you know what that means? You’ve killed more demons than discussed, and that doesn’t make us very happy. The Condesce is watching, and she’s watching you and your look-alike specifically. Excellent fighting skills. What wonderful Agents you would be. Too bad I have orders to kill you. It’s also too bad this isn’t the real you, but this will suffice.” He turns the knife inside of you, and your vision blurs. 

==>

You gasp awake, and Dirk sits up next to you seconds later. 

He turns to you. “What the hell was that?”

“What the hell was what?” you ask him back. He gives you a pointed look, like you’re supposed to know what he’s talking about.

“You just died,” he says bluntly. 

“That was just a dream. How do you even know about that?” 

He laughs bitterly. “That was anything but a dream. I know because I was there.”

You think back to the face you saw across the street. You knew it looked like Dirk. “How was that not a dream? I saw demons that I had killed before, but I’ve never dreamed about this before.”

“You didn’t dream anything. It was all real. What I just saw proves that it is. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but it’s real. I guess you won’t be seeing that anymore, though.”

“Why not?”

“That version of you is dead, killed by a demon. I don’t think there’s any coming back from that.”

“Fuck, that hurt. Do you know what it feels like to be stabbed like that?”

“No I don’t, and I don’t ever want to. Man, that looked fucking painful.”

“Thanks for being so considerate and empathetic,” you say sarcastically. 

“Does a Strider ever show when they’re scared?” he says, refusing to look at you.

You give him a look of pity. You mean it sincerely.

“I don’t want your pity.” Of course. “Sure, I had to watch you die, but it’s not like we haven’t seen that before.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I didn’t actually die? You were standing right there. I was just hurt really badly. Not dead, see?” you say as you gesture to yourself. 

“Well yeah, no shit, but it was too close. Now that I’ve seen you actually die though, I don’t want to see it again.”

“Well I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. With Bro watching over us all the time and my excellent skills, I don’t think I’ll be dying anytime soon.”

Dirk rolls his eyes at you. “Oh yeah, you have the most exquisite skills. Those are the same skills that almost got you killed once before. You’re just lucky that there’s five other people watching over you to save your ass when needed.”

“Shut up, Dirk. I’ve improved since then. I can actually keep up.” You don’t want to talk about this anymore. “Whatever. Back to the dream thing, how do you know that it’s real?”

“I’d been suspecting it was real for quite a long time, actually. Earlier, I just didn’t want to sound even crazier than I already sounded. We were both in the same place, and we were both conscious of what was going on around us. We knew what was happening. You could feel yourself being stabbed. I saw it happen. It can’t be a dream, and now I know someone that we can talk to about it.”

“Please tell me it’s not Bro.”

“It’s not,” he smirks. “Before I saw you, I saw someone else very familiar. I was just walking around, and I saw Rose. She was talking to a group of demons, and they weren’t even trying to kill her. Shows just how crazy she really is. But I think if we talk to her, she can maybe tell us exactly what’s going on.”

“Of course she’s there. I bet that’s where she gets all of her information about the demons from. How else would she know that all of the demons in the area are making a home in Death Valley?”

“My point exactly. I think now would be a good time to ask her about it, now that Mom and Bro aren’t breathing down our necks.”

“Good plan.”

The two of you stalk across the hall, careful to not make any noise as you do so. The door opens without a sound, and you close it with the same result. This would be a perfect pranking opportunity, but there are more serious matters at hand. As soon as you lay a hand on Rose’s shoulder, she sits up immediately. Not much of a heavy sleeper, you note, bad time to prank. You’re not that much of an expert. You hold your finger up to your mouth, signalling her to be quiet.

“What is so absolutely necessary that you have to wake me in the dead of night to tell me?” she whispers, “Obviously it’s not anything that would put any of us in danger, noting the closed door and lack of Father.” Even when he’s not around, she just has to call Bro that horrid name. It does get on his nerves more than yours though. Still, it makes you uncomfortable.

“We have some questions for you concerning a few dreams,” Dirk tells her.

She smirks. “Have you finally come to get that much needed therapy session I’ve been nagging you two about? It’s about time.”

“We’re not here for a fucking feels fest, Rose,” you say, “This is much more important.”

“What the hell were you doing in that purple city with those demons?” Dirk asks her. 

“You mean Derse?” she asks innocently, “I was simply conversing with the people. It’s only polite.”

“You mean to tell me that that place was Derse? The Derse? How is that even possible?” Dirk asks, his voice rising. Roxy stirred in her sleep beside Rose.

“I would be quiet, Dirk. You wouldn’t want Father hearing you.” She’s still smirking. “But yes, that was Derse. When we fall asleep, that is where our mind travels. We have two bodies, one here and one there. Should you die here, you can be revived there, so long as your dream self is alive. Even I don’t know how it’s entirely possible. That’s all I managed to pick up from the locals. And yes, by locals I mean demons.”

“So I’ve literally been in hell almost every night of my life?” Dirk doesn’t sound angry anymore, just defeated. 

“Yes, and as far as I know, we’re the only ones. I’ve seen Roxy there as well, but she’s never been awake. She is a sleepwalker though, I can tell you that. I’ve had to drag her back to her bed on more than one occasion to make sure she doesn’t get herself killed. Most of those demons are surprisingly kind, but some are especially ruthless.”

“Like that one that killed me,” you decide to mention. 

Rose looks at you, shock in her eyes. “A demon killed your dream self?”

“Yeah. It was the same demon that I watched kill a street full of people. He was talking about the Condesce.”

“What did he say?” She looks scared now, distressed.

“Well first he called me 'David Strider,' which was weird. Then he said that since we’re the only family to survive as a whole, we’ve also killed more demons than anyone else. He talked about the special interest the Condesce has in our family, and in me and my ‘look-alike’ in particular,” you explain. “Whatever that means. Oh, he also said that we would make great Agents, but it’s too bad that he has to kill us instead. Then he killed me. My dream self. He seemed to enjoy stabbing me though.”

Rose paled beyond what you thought was possible. “That demon wasn’t any demon, that was Spades. He’s one of the Agents of Derse, though he doesn’t much like the position. There are three other Agents, and together the four of them are responsible for carrying out the Condesce’s wishes. Apparently her next wish is to have the six of us killed. I’m surprised she hasn’t told her demons in the Death Valley to come and kill us since we’re so near. They obviously know that she wants us dead.”

“The Condesce doesn’t have reception,” Roxy suddenly mutters. “Derse is so far away that she has no way of getting the word to her demons that we’re so close by. That and she just doesn’t know where we are. Can we go back to sleep now?”

“Roxy, have you been listening to us this whole time?” Rose asks her. 

“I heard my name. I was only kind of listening before, but then you said I was a sleepwalker in Derse. I’ve been awake, I just prefer to stay asleep when I go to actual sleep.”

“So none of this surprises you?” Rose asks. 

“Not really. I already knew most of what you were talking about, except for the Condesce’s special interest in the boys.”

“How did you know all of this stuff before we did?” Dirk asks.

“Mom and Bro told me all about it when I asked them. Wasn't that hard. Didn't tell me 'til I was eighteen though. They'll tell Rose, but they probably won't tell you.” 

“So if my ‘dream self’ was killed, does that mean that version of me is gone for good?” You ask. She nods. 

“Yep. Sorry, but you’re never going back there.”

“Well I never wanted to go back anyway, so I think I’m fine.”

“Good, so can you leave so we can get some sleep before being up at the buttcrack of dawn?”


	3. Chapter 2

==>

You and Dirk are risen very unceremoniously at precisely 5:42 am. The buttcrack of dawn. You eat some of the cold soup that was left over from your meal last night with the rest of the family, and soon, the six of you are on your way. You’re lucky it stopped raining, but since it doesn’t rain much here, you shouldn’t have to worry much about any more.

Your mom uses a compass that she found to keep all of you heading west at all times. She’s been doing very well now that she hasn’t had a lick of alcohol in almost four years. It was bad at first. Rose did her best at coaching her through it, but it wasn’t easy. Nothing was ever easy. She was nearly delirious for those first couple months. A drink every day to nothing at all is a very hard transition. 

As the sun starts to set, you find a place to settle for the night, gathering all the food you can from the nearest houses. There’s enough room for all of you again in the house you decide to stay in. Bro lets you go to bed early, and he lets you sleep in the next morning, which is very unusual. He doesn’t explain. 

The next morning, you meet in the living room for a short family meeting before you leave. Roxy is the last to walk in, and when she does she says, “We have company.” 

Bro opens the curtains enough for you to see three people walking down the street. They appear to be going from house to house, probably looking for food and other necessities. They’re obviously not having any luck. Your family has already searched every house in the neighborhood, taking all of the food you could find. They’re walking up the driveway to the house that you’re temporarily staying in.

Bro turns and faces the rest of you. “They’re coming here. They don’t look very threatening, but they look hungry. We’re just going to have to hide and wait for them to leave. They’re probably going to take our food, but we can get more.”

“What?” Dirk exclaims. “But Bro, that’s our food! You always let people do this! Why can’t we just kill them?”

“We don’t kill innocent people, that’s why. We’re going to let them take what they need. They’re not doing as well as we are, and they’re going through the same fight that we are. They’re almost at the door, so go find somewhere to hide, and under no circumstances are you to come out until I say it’s alright. Got it? Now go.”

All of you run in opposite directions. You climb up the stairs, Rose following close behind. You split when you get to the top. You run into the bedroom that you and Dirk share and quickly get under the bed. The blankets hang low off the sides, covering the large gap between the bottom of the bed and the floor. You hear the front door open. You realize that you forgot to close and lock the door to the bedroom, but someone down there must be good at picking locks. You know the front door was locked before they got to it. 

You freeze when you hear someone coming up the stairs. The stranger walks into your bedroom. You think that they’re probably just going to look for some jewelry or blankets, but then they close the door. 

“You can’t hide from me that easily, you know,” a male voice says quietly. Your eyes widen. He sits on the bed above you. “Don’t be scared though, I don’t mean that in the way that it sounds. I could hear people talking in here as we were walking up. The rest of my family doesn’t know that you’re here. I didn’t tell them. I can hear your breathing, too. It’s really loud.” You immediately try to soften your breaths, but the boy above you just laughs softly. “Don’t bother trying to breathe softer, it won’t help anything. I’ll be able to hear it no matter what.”

He sighs. “You probably think I’m some kind of demon now, don’t you?” You do. “I promise I’m not. My sister says I talk about it too much. I’m not trying to be creepy, or weird, or scary. I can’t help it. Please come out. I haven’t seen a normal person that isn’t a part of my family in so long.” 

You hesitate. He could be lying about not being a demon. Bro warned you to never trust anybody. He also told you not to come out until he tells you to.

“Please?” the boy asks. “I promise I won’t hurt you. I don’t even have any weapons with me. I left them downstairs. I guess I could still punch you or something, but I won’t as long as you don’t try to hurt me. I just want to talk, I promise.”

He sounds trustworthy enough, and you usually know when someone is lying. He’s not. Carefully, you slip out from under the bed. The skinny boy sitting on the bed looks no older than fourteen, but you know that he is. 

He smiles at you. “Hi! I’m John.”

You immediately skip to the questions. “How could you hear us talking? How could you hear me breathing? How could you do that and not be a demon?”

He sighs. He must’ve been expecting the questions. “I don’t know how I can do it. Anything relating to air, no matter how quiet, I can hear. Talking, that’s air through the vocal chords. Breathing, that’s air. I can even tell what way the wind is moving, if a storm is coming, anything. I don’t know why or how. I was just born with it, I guess.”

You know the feeling, though you haven’t actually told anyone yet. You eye him suspiciously. “Why didn’t you tell your family that we’re here?”

“I wanted to talk to someone. It’s been really lonely. I have my dad and my sister, but they’re the only people I’ve seen! I know there are still people alive, I can hear them breathing, but I wanted to see it myself. It’s stupid.”

“That’s not stupid, that’s just fucking insane. I could’ve been one of those psychopaths that kills anybody in their path and you’d be dead on the floor right now.”

“I know how to fight. I would definitely get away without being killed. I’m not that stupid.”

“You left your weapons downstairs,” you point out. He smiles and pulls his shirt up a little bit, revealing a small hammer. 

“Never said I was a man of my word. I just said that so I could get you to talk to me, but I still promise I won’t hurt you. I have a feeling you could do some pretty bad damage with that sword of yours.” He gestures to the katana sitting on the dresser beside the bed.

“You bet your ass that I could do some serious damage.” 

John only laughs. “You totally could, but we don’t need that right now. Things might get a little loud, and it would be a shame if your ‘Bro’ heard us. You did break his rules to talk to me after all.”

You scoff. “Only because I was tired of listening to your pitiful monologue.”

“You thought it was pitiful?” He laughs again. “Good. My acting skills just keep getting better and better. I meant some of what I said about being lonely and just wanting to talk to someone, but only to an extent. Most of my old neighborhood didn’t like me much anyway, so it’s always just been my dad and my sister and I. Even before this alpocalypse. I’ve just been trying to be able to convince those crazy psychopaths to not kill me should I ever meet one. I guess it worked on you. You’re not a crazy psychopaths though.”

“Maybe you should just keep to yourself and not try to engage with anybody. People differ. I may not’ve tried to kill you, but the next person might kill you whether you’re a pity story or not. That’s just what humans do, and demons won’t even listen to a word you’re saying. It would be best to just learn how to fight.”

He scoffs. “I told you, I know how to fight. Sure, I’m not the best, but that’s why I’m also trying this. I suppose you’re right, though.”

“Of course I am, I’m always right. But I mean, dude, you’re using a hammer to fight. I’m not very surprised that you’re not very good.”

“I never said I wasn’t very good, I just said I wasn’t the best. I’m actually surprisingly good at fighting with this hammer.”

“I take that as not very good. But it’s a fucking hammer. What can you do with that?”

“Oh my god, you’re being such a prick. There are plenty of things I could do with this hammer, including bashing your big head in with it.”

“Oh really, you wanna go? Come at me.” You shouldn’t have said that. He jumps up from his spot on the bed, and you barely have time to grab your katana off of the dresser. You block his every attempt to hit you with his hammer, but he is surprisingly good at using that small hammer as a weapon. You know he’s only doing this to prove his point, but you easily best him. Due to the lack of space, the two of you end up hitting the bed and the dresser multiple times. You’re starting to wonder when his dad or his sister are going to notice. 

Not long after that thought, you hear the stairs creak. Someone’s coming up. They’ve heard the fighting. You quickly scurry back under the bed, the katana still in your hand. The door opens.

“John?” a feminine voice asks, “What’s going on? Dad and I heard some noise, so I came to investigate.”

“Don’t worry, Jane,” John says, “I’m fine. This drawer was just getting stuck, and it was frustrating me.” This boy is good at lying, you’ll give him that. 

“John, you know you can’t lie to me,” Jane says softly, “You heard something, didn’t you? Please tell me you weren’t talking to anybody.” Good at lying to everyone but his sister, apparently.

“Uh, well…” Great.

“John, what did Dad and I tell you? You can’t just go off and talk to people you don’t know, especially now. You’re lucky you’re not dead right now. That noise, you were fighting. Where’s the person you were talking to. I know they haven’t left this room.”

“No, it was just a small strife, I promise! We weren’t actually trying to kill each other! He was just being a prick about how I fight with a ‘useless hammer’, so I wanted to show him up.”

“And did you?”

“Well, no, but I think he got the point. He may be better at fighting, but he knows that I can do some serious hammer damage.”

“Well, I’d still like to see him.” Shit. 

“I don’t know if he wants to come out,” John says. You can hear the smirk on his face. “He’s quite shy. It took a lot of convincing to get him to come out in the first place.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re the one that made him come out of his hiding place? Again, what did Dad and I tell you? John, I know you’re quite the social butterfly, but this is going to have to stop. You didn’t tell him anything, did you?” she paused. She must’ve been looking at his face, trying to see if he had told you anything. His face must’ve given it all away. “John, what did you tell him?”

“I just told him my name, and that I could… hear him breathing.”

“Johnathon Egbert, what did I tell you about telling people that?”

“That I shouldn’t...”

“Exactly. So why did you?”

“Well I told him that he was breathing loud, and he tried to make them quieter, but I could still hear them. So I told him that, too. Then I just felt that I needed to explain myself. He probably thought I was a demon, so I needed to tell him that I’m not,” he explained. “It’s just been so long, and he’s my age, Jane! Or he’s at least close to it. I love you and Dad, but all of your yelling gets on my nerves sometimes. I just wanted a change of atmosphere. You’re just lucky I didn’t run away first.”

Well. That quickly took a turn for the worse.

“You were going to run away?” Jane asks. 

“Yes, I was,” he states. “You guys treat me like a child because of what I can do, but I can handle myself. And whenever I try to do something helpful for us, you yell at me and tell me that I’m wrong! Even when I’m not! I can do the same things you guys can do, you know. I’m not a baby.”

“John, we do this because we love you. We don’t want you to get hurt because you accidentally do something stupid. This is an example of something you’ve done that you shouldn’t have done. This could’ve killed you.”

“But it didn’t. I’m still alive and well. I know what I’m doing.” John sighs. “Can we not talk about this anymore? We have a guest.” 

“A guest that I would still like to see,” Jane reminds him. 

John sighs and says to you, “Maybe you should come out. She won’t hurt you, I promise. It’s kind of pointless to keep you hidden now that she knows you exist.” You do agree with that. You slowly make your way out from under the bed, opting to leave your katana there. Seeming like a threat to this girl would not be a good idea. You stand up and stand in front of the siblings. It’s obvious that they’re related. Both of them have raven-colored hair and blue eyes, though John’s are a deep blue and Jane’s are a bright one. She wears a look of anger- and black glasses- on her otherwise soft face. You give her a sheepish look and a small wave.

All of a sudden, Jane bursts into a fit of laughter. “You lost to this little thing?”

Surprisingly enough, John jumps to your rescue. “He’s still taller than me. He’s actually a lot stronger than he looks. That’s all muscle on him. He can move a lot quicker for longer because he doesn’t have any breathing problems anymore like I still do. He even used to have asthma.”

That last fact surprises you more than the initial statement. How can he possibly know that? Then you remember his weird breathing fetish thing, and it doesn’t surprise you anymore. But he must have asthma. You remember how much it sucked.

“Excuses, excuses,” Jane continues, giving her brother a light push. He shoots her a glare, but it’s a playful one. “Anyway, we have to get out of here. Dad’s going to be looking for us. If he finds out you’ve been talking to this boy, you’re going to get in trouble. Let’s go.”

“Okay, you’re right,” he says. Then he turns to you. “Goodbye then I guess. I doubt we’ll be seeing each other again.”

As he starts walking toward the door, you catch his shoulder and say, “Wait.” John turns back around and raises his eyebrows expectantly. “Follow my family. Stay out of sight and don’t come into wherever we’re staying to get food, but stay close enough to know where we’re staying. I’ll sneak some food out to you in the middle of the night every night for y’all to pick up. All you have to do is keep up with us and you’ll have it made.”

John’s face lights up. “Are you serious? That’d be great!”

“Yes, it would be, but think about it John. We would have to tell Dad everything,” Jane says to him.

“But we’ll get food! Won’t that be enough for him?”

“It could be, but there’s no guarantee.”

“Come on, Jane! We at least have to try. We’ll be happier this way.”

Suddenly, a look of both pity and love crosses her face. “John, I know you want to be happy. I want to be happy too. But nobody gets everything they want, especially in the world we have now. But I also want you to be happy. We’ll talk to Dad about it, okay? After we leave the house, we’ll ask him and stuff. Does that sound good?”

John’s face lights up. “Of course it sounds okay! It sounds great! Thank you so much, Jane!” 

Jane smiles too. “You’re very welcome, John. Now let’s go before Dad gets too suspicious.”

“Okay! Hopefully we’ll see you soon… uh…”

“Dave,” you cut in. You hadn’t realized that you hadn’t told him your name.

“See you soon, Dave!” he says happily. Then he follows Jane out the door and down the stairs. Soon after that, you hear the front door close. A few minutes after that, you hear Bro yell, “Okay everybody, out!”

You and Rose come out of your rooms at the same to head downstairs. She raises her eyebrows at you, but she says nothing. You know she heard you and John and possible Jane talking. She probably knows you did something to help them out too. You know she’s going to confront you about it later. 

You all meet in the living room. You have the short family meeting that you were going to have before company showed up, talking about possible routes and such. As soon as you were done with that, you pack everything up plus some food that Bro hid for the road and you're on your way. 

==>

You walk a little ways behind the rest of your family. It stays like that for a while before Rose joins you. She’s going to ask you about John. 

“I heard you talking with one of the children earlier today. Who were you talking to?” she asks you. You roll your eyes behind your shades. 

“I wasn’t talking to anyone, Rose,” you say, but you know she’s not buying it. 

“Dave, please. I have ears, and I can hear just as well as you can. Who was it that you were talking to?”

You sigh. “I was talking to the son, John. Then his sister Jane came in the room. I told him that he could follow us, and I would leave them food. They said they would have to talk to their dad about it, so I don’t actually know if they’re following us. Guess I’ll find out when I try to leave food for them.”

“That is both wise and stupid, my dear brother. At least we’ll have some allies. They won’t do us any harm, will they?” she asks.

“No, I don’t think so,” you say, “We had a small strife and I won, obviously, so I don’t think we should worry. They’re harmless. They just want food.”

“I am surprised that the David Strider has offered to help a family by stealing the food that we need and giving it to them.”

You know what she’s trying to do. “Do not call me David. That’s just... weird. But you and I both know that we usually get more than enough food, even if it is cold or stale. Giving a little bit at a time won’t hurt us that much. Besides, these people are pretty nice, and helping people is nice. Is that a crime?”

“Well it seems to be for you. You usually only do things for personal gain. What are you gaining here?” 

“I’m gaining the chance to meet new people. I’m also learning how to be nice to people. Isn’t that enough to gain? Also irony.”

“Ah, of course. I should have known. Irony. Why else would you be nice to people?”

“Exactly. See? I told you you would get the hang of irony eventually. I think those days are finally here. I can’t wait til I get you rapping.”

Rose rolls her eyes. “You are never going to get me to rap with you, Dave. That is the one dream of yours that will never come true.”

“Whatever. I’ll get you some day. Just you wait.”

The two of you walk in silence the rest of the way. Your family doesn’t stop walking. Even when it’s time for lunch, you eat on the move. You feel kind of bad. What if John’s family did decide to follow you? You couldn’t leave anything for them for lunch. What if their dad was skeptical about following you and going with it just to see if what you said was true? Their dad probably hates you now, and he might hate John too. You need to stop overthinking. 

Just as you decide to leave bigger portions than you were planning for them for dinner, Rose drops a can of some sort of soup on the ground. Since the two of you are at the back, nobody notices. Damn Rose for being able to think faster than you. You give her a nod of approval and thanks. She nods a you’re welcome back. You look back forward and smile to yourself. 

Although you and Rose have your differences, the two of you are surprisingly close. Rose just naturally has the ability to read everybody, but you can read Rose better than anybody else. You can communicate with her without talking. Whenever your parents put you and Rose against Dirk and Roxy in a strife, the two of you almost always win due to this. You enjoy fighting alongside Rose more than anyone else. It’s the kind of relationship that every parent wishes their kids have. The two of you are about as close as you can be. It’s actually kind of great.


	4. Chapter 3

==>

As the sun starts to set, your family finds another empty house to stay the night in. You do the usual nightly ritual of searching all of the houses in the neighborhood for food. Surprisingly enough, the faucets in the house you choose to stay in actually still work, so you don’t have to look for any water. After you all finish that and go back to the house that you’re staying in, Mom prepares dinner. You take the two cans of cold soup that she hands you and announce that you’re going on a walk. Bro is skeptical until Rose announces that she’s going with you. Of course. Add a Rose and suddenly everything is better now. 

The two of you walk out of the house with your two cans of soup each. As you walk down the street, you see a head pop out of one of the doors of a house down the street. A hand waves, and you know it’s John. You and Rose walk to the house to see John waiting there with the door open. He invites you into the kitchen where the rest of his family is sitting. You nod your head at Jane when she smiles a hello. John’s dad is sitting at the head of the table, patiently waiting for something to happen. You and Rose walk forward to the table. You set both of your cans down, and Rose sets one of hers down next to yours. 

“Rose and I can share this one can. You guys can have the rest of them,” you say to the family. Jane and John both smile, and John’s dad cracks a small grin.

“Thank you so much for doing this for us, Dave,” John’s dad says to me. Then he turns to Rose. “And who are you?”

“My name is Rose. I’m Dave’s sister. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she says, extending a hand to Mr. Egbert. He shakes it. 

Rose, Jane, and her dad start having a conversation, so John comes up to you and leads you to the next room over, which is the living room. The two of you sit in silence on a dusty couch. 

Suddenly, John says, “You know, it started on my birthday.”

“What did?” you ask, but you’re pretty sure you already know. 

“The apocalypse,” he says. 

“I’m sorry, John,” you say quietly. You’re not sure what else you’re supposed to say to that. 

“I woke up thinking it would be a good day. It was my thirteenth birthday. I was finally as old as my other friends that always teased me for being younger than them. I was only younger by a couple of months though.” John smiles, probably remembering his friends. “Because I was so close to them, if I listened hard enough, I could hear them breathing and know that they’re alright, even if they were far away. I didn’t have to listen very hard to hear their screams when demons took them though.”

You really don’t know what to say now. “On the day the apocalypse started, I saw a man’s spine get ripped out of him by a demon.” 

John’s eyes widened. “You can see demons?”

“With my shades, yeah. Bro made them specially for something like this. They're designed to see the outline shadow of a demon. It's hard to explain. Apparently he knew it might come someday,” you say. 

John’s eyes remain wide as he asks, “Can I try them on?” 

“No,” you immediately say. Seeing demons isn't the only reason you keep these on. 

“Come on, Dave. Please?” he begs. You shake your head. 

“No, John. I’m not taking these off.”

“Why not? It’ll just be for a second. Come on, please,” he continues to beg. “Just for a second.”

You sigh. “Fine, but only for a second. Don’t go too crazy though. They’re just normal shades when there aren’t any demons around.” You take them off of your face, but you keep your eyes shut. You don’t trust this boy that much yet. You can almost see the look of confusion that’s probably on John’s face in your mind. You know he’ll probably want to ask questions later, but for now he seems to be restraining. 

Suddenly, John warily asks, “Dave, what exactly does a demon look like?”

You think for a moment. “Um, like I said before, they just look kinda like shadows. That’s really it. It’s not really much. I’m sure the actual demon looks much scarier, but with those you can only see the shadow.”

“Uh, Dave, maybe you should take your shades back now,” John says to you. You can tell by the tone of his voice that something is wrong. 

“Okay, whatever,” you answer, hiding the fact that you’re kind of worried now. You feel John put your shades in your hand, and you slide them back on your face before opening your eyes. Right outside of the window in front of you is the shadow of a demon. It seems to have been just making its way down the street before it sensed the human life here. Shit. 

“John, slowly walk back into the kitchen, and be as careful as you can,” you say through gritted teeth. 

“Okay,” he whispers. You can hear the fear in his voice. 

The two of you walk back to the kitchen, doing exactly what you said to do: be slow and careful. You finally make it back to the kitchen, where the others are sitting and talking. 

“Hey, Rose,” you say quietly. She turns her head and looks at you expectantly. “We have some company outside.” She understands you immediately and pulls out the sharpened sewing needles that she always keeps in her belt loops. You pull out your sword from your own belt loops. John goes to the corner of the kitchen and picks up a sledge hammer that he just happens to have on hand. What the fuck. You can’t imagine how much muscle he had to have built to be able to pick that up. 

Mr. Egbert and Jane begin to understand as they see the three of us equip ourselves with our weapons and they get weapons of their own. Jane gets what looks like a giant red fork, and Mr. Egbert gets shaving cream that he must have found around the house and a lighter. 

We stay in the kitchen, waiting to see if the demon might just walk right by. It doesn’t. The front door flies open, revealing the demon. This one looks strangely human. You recognize it instantly. 

It’s an orphaned child that died. It’s parents died, and no one must have taken it in. It probably died of starvation. Now it’s back as a demon because of the anger that they felt when they were left behind. Their main target: parents. And one is standing right next to you.

“Mr. Egbert, stay back! That thing has it’s eyes on you and only you!” you yell at him.

As you predicted, it charges straight for Mr. Egbert. John just stands there and yells at his dad to watch out while you, Rose, and Jane rush in to help. You're not sure how Jane could go into battle to fight something she can't see, but she does it anyway. The three of you go for the demon, but it quickly backs up, avoiding your strikes. You all charge while John stands by his dad and shock and fear. You have a feeling this family hasn’t fought demons before. 

You all manage to corner the demon, but that doesn’t stop it. It jumps over your heads and goes right for Mr. Egbert again. He tries to get his shaving cream and lighter ready to fire, but you know he won’t be ready in time. Just as the demon is about to make it’s final strike, John leaps in front of his dad, taking the demon’s claws himself. You stand in shock for a second before moving in, striking the demon with your sword and killing it. It folds in on itself and disappears. You feel a sense of pride rise up in you before you remember John. 

He’s on the ground with everybody else around him. He has two large and deep gashes on his chest from the demon’s claws. Mr. Egbert and Rose are trying to stop the bleeding with already soaking red towels. Jane is no where to be seen. She probably can’t stand to see her brother like this right now. You can barely stand to see it either. The sight of blood is almost too much.

John is very pale, and his bright blue eyes are fading fast. His breathing is shallow. The bleeding hasn’t stopped. You know he already know he isn’t going to make it. As his life fades, you close your eyes. Time of death: 10:18 PM.


	5. Chapter 4

==>

This is when you hear a knock on the wall of the kitchen. You open your eyes to find Bro, Mom, and Roxy standing in the entrance to the kitchen. Roxy is nearly crying and Mom is getting there. Bro is just standing there, his face stoic as ever. Dirk is no where to be found. 

Then Jane comes back in, her face red and her eyes puffy. When she approaches John, her dad steps away, signaling Rose to do the same. She does, and Jane kneels next to John. She puts her hand on his chest where his heart used to beat. She closes her eyes, and suddenly a fire as blue as Jane’s eyes engulfs John. When it fades, his eyes fly open, and he gasps mouthful after mouthful of air. Everybody except Jane and her dad stand in disbelief at what just happened. 

What the fuck just happened.

Jane hugs John as the gaping wounds on his chest close, leaving nothing but two rips stained with blood in his shirt where the gashes used to be. Mr. Egbert also goes in and hugs his son, clinging to him tightly. 

We let them have their moment before Bro clears his throat and says, “I hate to break up this touching moment, but I just have to ask y’all one thing. What the ever loving fuck just happened?”

Jane gasps. She must’ve just realized that we had more people than she had originally thought. Her eyes are wide. Bro raises his eyebrows over his stupid triangle shades expectantly. 

“Uh, John got better?” Jane tries. Obviously that's not what happened. Jane sighs. “I can’t really explain it. I’ve been able to bring things back to life ever since I was little. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how. I just can.”

Bro look at her suspiciously. “How can you do that and not be a demon?”

“Bro,” Roxy whispers intensely, hitting his arm. 

“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbles to her. Then he turns back to the Egbert family and says, “I’m so glad that John is all alive again and stuff. Now how can you do that and not be a demon?” 

Roxy rolls her eyes and sighs. She knows that that’s the best she’s going to get out of him. 

“I already told you, I don’t know!”Jane says, her voice getting slightly louder with each word. “But I can only do it once per life form, so maybe it will make you happy to know that next time John dies, he’ll die for good!” Tears well up in her eyes. 

Bro opens his mouth to say something else before you cut in, saying, “Bro, just stop, okay? Can you not see that they’ve been through a lot?”

“And just how did you get to know them? Aren’t they the ones that searched our house for food?” Bro asks you. You expected this much. 

“When they did come in, John found me. We talked, and I found out that he’s not a bad guy. Then Jane came to get John. They’ve obviously been having trouble getting food, so I told them that I would help them.”

“Help them how?” he asks. 

“By having them follow us. During meals I was going to sneak out and take food to them. I just had to help them,” you say. Bro sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Dave, we need food too. Have you not payed enough attention throughout your life to know that we have six mouths to feed?”

“Oh good job Bro, you can count! Have you not payed enough attention throughout this apocalypse to know that almost everyone out here is starving except for us? I thought maybe you would be okay with this because you always let people take some of our food anyway when they come by. How is this any different?”

“Don’t give me that attitude. Usually people don’t take too much, and they don’t come by very often. This is giving food away for every single meal. We need that food.”

“You always give us more than we need though! What Rose and I had tonight was enough to feed the five of us. You always give us too much,” you say. The look on his face tells you that you’re winning.

Bro turns to Rose. “You were in this too. How could you?” 

Rose looks baffled that he called her out like that. “What are you talking about? ‘How could I?’ Like Dave said, you always give us so much more food than we need. Can I not just help hungry people? I don’t know why you’re arguing this. It is making you look like the bad guy.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m just trying to keep you alive! Is that a crime now?” 

“If I could interrupt,” Mr. Egbert starts saying to Bro, “I would like to talk to you, adult to adult, parent to parent, man to man if you will. Let’s go into the living room.”

Bro sighs, “Fine,” and follows Mr. Egbert into the living room. As soon as they leave, you rush to John and kneel next to him. He’s sitting up now, leaning against the cabinets for support. He still looks pale, but he’s slowly gaining his tanned color back. The sight of the drying blood on his shirt makes you want to puke, but you ignore the feeling and sit next to him. 

“How are you doing?” you ask, unsure of what else to say. 

“I’m doing pretty good I guess,” he says. Then he actually turns to face you and asks, “Did I really die?” Jane has to walk away because of the tears coming back into her eyes. 

You sigh. “Yeah, you did.” 

John looks down at his lap where he’s fiddling with his hands. “It was weird,” he finally says, “First it was all dark, then it was the day of the apocalypse again. It was my birthday. Then suddenly it wasn’t, and I was here again. I thought I had just passed out, but when Jane said ‘next time John dies,’ I was really confused.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter that that happened. What matters is that you’re alive again,” you say. Wow you really want this conversation to be over. You need to get away from that blood. 

“I guess you’re right. I’ll just have to make sure and thank Jane later,” he says, a smile appearing on his face. “I better go find a clean shirt to wear. Hopefully these people used to wear my size.” 

He leaves to go look for a different shirt while you stay seated on the floor. It’s time for you to think about what the fuck you just saw. 

John died. That was pretty clear. Jane walked in and brought him back to life. That means she has abilities like John has abilities. You wonder if it runs in the family. Then you wonder if it might happen to run in your family too. 

Ever since you were little, you’ve been able to tell the time to the second without looking at any time-telling device. You suppose it’s not as strange as being able to hear people breath, but you still keep it a secret. You’re the only one that knows. You guess Rose might know too. When you consider all of her weird, crazy, people-reading skills, you think that she must know that you’re hiding something along those lines. You think she’s hiding something too. 

Rose walks over to you from Mr. Egbert as John walks back into the kitchen. John is now wearing a clean white short sleeved shirt with that green slime ghost thing from ghostbusters on the front. He’s smiling like an idiot. 

“John,” you start as he sits down next to you again, “Please pardon my French, but what the frick frack fuck is that that you’re wearing?”

His smile only grows. “It’s a Ghostbusters shirt! Isn’t it great? Me and Jane and my dad used to watch Ghostbusters all the time! That was one of my all time favorite movies! Only behind Con Air, of course.”

“Oh my god,” you say, “You did not just say that. You did not just say that Con Air is the best movie of all time. Oh man, that movie is so shitty!”

“Hey, don’t dis Con Air! It’s the best movie of all time,” John says, his face forming a pout.

You roll you eyes. “Whatever, dude.”

He also rolls his eyes jokingly and starts to get up, probably pretending to be ‘wounded’ by my comment about Con Air, the world’s shittiest movie. When he tried to get up though, he fell right back down. You catch him as best you can and help him sit back how he was sitting before. His eyes are glassy, and his breath is short. He’s obviously not doing as well as he must’ve tried to lead on.

“Maybe you should just stay sitting down for a while, John,” you say to him.

“No, I’m fine,” he says. “I feel fine.”

“Now, I hate to be the one to have to bring this back to mind, but you just died, John,” Rose says. “Even though you may feel perfectly fine and normal, you have to take it easy. Your body is probably still trying to heal completely and get its systems back up and running. Just take it easy for now.”

“That’s dumb,” John finally says after a while, his face forming into a pout again. 

Rose sighs. “I know you think it is, but don’t worry. You’ll be back before you know it. You’ll only have to take it easy for maybe a day.”

John sighs too. “Okay, fine. Whatever.”

The three of you sit in silence until Bro and Mr. Egbert come back in. Bro looks pretty unhappy through his stoic gaze while Mr. Egbert is smiling smugly. You can tell exactly who it was that won whatever went on in there. Bro sighs and takes his shades off to look each and every one of you in the eye, something he rarely does. Then he puts them back on. 

“So who’s up for an extended family road trip?”


	6. Chapter 5

The Egberts stay in their house that they chose for the night before joining is in the morning for breakfast. Breakfast was again, wow what do you know, more cold soup. After breakfast, the nine of you head west together. You walk at the back of the group again with John on your left and Rose on your right. The day goes by very uneventfully. The three of you make small talk along the way, but it’s nothing interesting. 

Soon the sun starts to set again and you do the usual looking for food and water in the expensive-looking neighborhood that you choose to stay in. Now that you have some extra people, it goes by even faster. The Egberts eat dinner with you. Then you split yourselves between two houses. The Egberts, you, and Rose stay in one house while the rest of your family stays in one next door. 

For the first time in a very long time, you get your own room. 

As you lie in your bed, all alone, you think back to the time when you and Dirk shared a room before the two of you grew out of it. That wasn’t until you were twelve though, so you only had about a year for your own room before the demons came. You were so excited to finally get your own room to decorate and make your own. You’d never gotten to do that before. 

When you finally got that room, you did your best to make it your own. You hung up some posters, especially the ones Dirk didn’t let you hang up. Those were your Midnight Crew posters. You always loved that comic. You also ironically hung a couple shitty katanas up on your wall. There was a shelf thing that was in the corner that had been there since you moved in, so you took that opportunity to put your dead things collection on it. 

Sure, there were some things that were pretty sketchy about it. The two desks that you had in your room were just pieces of wood on top of cement blocks. Your turntables sat on a low bookshelf thing. You didn’t have an actual bed frame, just matresses. But this was your favorite room in the house. You finally had somewhere comfortable that you could go to hide away in without having to worry about someone else also being there at the same time. You could put stuff that was unironic in plain sight because you, again, didn’t have to worry about anyone else being in there. Your camera was one of those things. Except for when you slept, that thing was always just sitting on your unmade bed. It was a pretty good feeling.

Thinking about the good times, the times before this hell, you finally fall asleep with a smile on your face.

==>

You wake up at 2:33 in the morning. It was another nightmare. You sigh, knowing you won't be getting back to sleep anytime soon, so you get up and head downstairs. You know either Mom or Bro is up, keeping watch, but they don't mind when you get up. They know why you do. 

You walk out to the deck and are surprised to see John sitting in one of the chairs. You sit in the one next to him. He doesn't look at you, but he holds up a hand to acknowledge you. You do the same, then look to the sky. Surprisingly enough, even with all of the pollution that the earth has made, the sky is full of stars. It’s making you wish that you still had your camera. 

After a while of silence, John turns to you and says, “So why are you up?” 

“Nightmare,” you say curtly. "It's also a pretty nice night." That part's a lie though. It’s not pretty nice, it’s just plain fucking beautiful up there. Beautiful isn’t really a word you use often in your vocabulary, but you feel that it’s appropriate to use in this instance. 

“You know, it’d probably look even better without those glasses on your face. Why are you even wearing them at night? Can you even see how wonderful the sky looks?”

You know he’s curious about what’s under your shades. One look at his faces proves that it’s a very obvious fact that he is. “I can see just fine. The sky is just full of sparkly wonderful shit. Wonderful. But I’m wearing them because they’re fucking cool.” 

“If you think wearing sunglasses at night makes you look cool then you really need to reevaluate your life,” John says to you.

You roll your eyes. “If you think wearing shades at night isn’t cool, then I think you need to reevaluate your life.” Why are you even trying to argue about this. This is stupid, but it is almost three in the morning.

“Just stop talking. What you just said there, that was probably the most stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I think you’re too tired for this.”

You give a short laugh. “Did you seriously just call what I said the most stupidest thing ever? Are you serious right now?” 

“Probably.”

“Man, at least try to use proper grammar,” you say to him. He rolls his eyes and turns his head back to the sky. So do you. After a brief moment of silence, you say to John, “So why are you out here?” 

John sighs and looks down at the ground. “It was a nightmare this time, but it doesn’t matter. It was just the same old start of the apocalypse one.” 

You nod in understanding and return your gaze again to the sky. Not long after that, you find yourself drifting to sleep. 

==>

Someone is touching your shades. You bolt awake, but for the first time, you’re not fast enough. Your shades are already off of your face. You immediately close your eyes, shielding them from your attacker and the bright morning sun. 

“What the hell?” you yell.

“I just wanted to see why you always wear these. I didn’t know you were so protective of them. Sorry,” John says.

“Maybe I wear them because any kind of bright light that touches my unguarded eyes burns so much that I can barely stand it?” you say. Okay, it doesn’t hurt that much, but the more painful you make it sound, the more likely he won’t ask anymore questions.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Here,” he says, putting the shades back on your face. You can hear the frown in his voice. 

You open your eyes. “It’s cool,” you say to him. “Just one of the many perks of being albino.”

John’s eyes widen. “You’re albino?” he asks.

You gesture down to your body. “Is it not obvious? If anything, I thought the paleness of literally everything would give it away.”

“So you you have red eyes too?” he asks excitedly.

You sigh. “Ha, I wish.” You wish you didn’t. “Wait, why is it so bright?”

Oh. It’s 8:26 in the morning. That’s why.

“It’s morning. Duh,” John says.

You roll your eyes at him. “Yeah, I realized that after I asked. Thanks. It’s just weird though. Bro usually wakes us up at the crack of dawn to keep moving.”

“Maybe since you guys now have another family he’s letting us all sleep in,” John suggests. You shrug, but you know that’s not why. This isn’t the first time that he’s let you sleep in. Even if he did have new people, he never would have even considered letting us all sleep in and lose time because of them. You don’t know what’s with him.

“I think we should go see if anyone else is awake,” you say. “If everyone else is already awake, maybe we can get a move on. You don’t want to have to not be able to find a neighborhood to stay in and sleep out in the open at night.”

You and John walk into the house to find everybody else, including everyone from your family, in the kitchen. They’re dishing out the usual cans of cold soup to everyone for breakfast. You sit next to Rose, and she looks at you like she’s trying to read your mind before she turns away a second later. Jane is wiggling her eyebrows at John, and he lightly punches her arm. Then Jane looks at Roxy and they both wiggle their eyebrows at each other. You mentally roll your eyes and pick up the can of soup that was set in front of you. Cheddar and broccoli. Hooray.

After you all finish breakfast, you head out. At exactly 6:32, you reach a sign that boldly states, ‘Welcome to California!’ This is when Bro decides it’s a good idea to find a house to stay in for the night. You walk until you come to a house that must have belonged to a celebrity. It would fit the nine of you plus more. There are no other houses around. If this really was a celebrity’s house, they must have built it where no one else would look to find it. It also meant that there were no other houses to look for food or water in. You just have to hope that this house still has some. 

It doesn’t look like it’s been touched by the apocalypse at all. It looks like houses did before the demons came. The lights are off and the sun is beginning to make way for the moon, which makes this place look kind of creepy, but it’s nothing compared to the demons you’ve seen. When you walk in, you’re immediately greeted by a giant entryway with two sets of stairs, one on each side of the room, leading upstairs. Straight ahead is an opening that leads to what looks like a living room. Instead of exploring that part of the house, you run upstairs to claim your bedroom. 

The first one you come by is too frilly. The next one has too many windows. The next one is a just a bathroom that’s the size of the other bedrooms. Finally you reach one that looks pretty nice. There’s one window with black curtains over it. You take your shoes off, put your backpack full of cans of food on the floor, and throw yourself onto the bed. It’s a waterbed. That is some fancy shit. After a few minutes, you decide you should probably go and look around downstairs.

You walk through what you guessed right as the living room and find the kitchen off to the left. It was gigantic. Between the counters and the table, there’s enough room for all of you to sit. After dinner and some small chit chat, Bro and Mr. Egbert send everyone else to bed. The two of them and Mom stay behind in the kitchen, probably to talk. 

You walk upstairs and find your room. Just as you’re starting to settle down, there’s a knock at your door. You open it to reveal John. He gestures for you to follow him. You walk behind him to another room. He opens the door and holds his arm out as if he’s presenting something grand. You’re confused until you see the tv and the small rectangular box. The tv is on. 

“How is that even possible?” you ask. 

John shrugs. “I have no idea dude, but it’s gonna be great. Guess what game I found.”

“I don’t know, what?” you ask. He grins.

“Grand Theft Auto 4,” he says. You walk forward and sit on the floor immediately. There is no way in hell that you aren’t going to pass up on the opportunity to play GTA IV again. You’d only gotten to play it two or three times before the apocalypse happened, but it was one of the best games you owned. Well, technically Bro owned it, but he never had the time to play it, so you took it. He never noticed. 

Just as you start playing, a noise comes from behind you. John is sitting right next to you, so it couldn’t have been him. You immediately suspect Jane because of her love for pranks, you found that out the hard way, or maybe it’s Roxy because of her love for pranks on you. You turn around to find that you are very wrong. Standing behind you and John are two people that you’ve never seen in your life. There’s a girl with long black hair and a shotgun in her hands, pointing at you. Her eyes are the brightest green you’ve ever seen. Standing next to her is a boy that also has black hair, but his eyes are a bright red that are very similar to yours. He’s holding a sickle. Both of them look ready to fight. 

You hit John until he turns around too. His jaw drops, and then so does the girl’s. She lets go of the gun and leaps toward him, tackling him to the ground in a hug and squealing. The boy that was standing next to her looks just as confused as you feel. They’re both laughing. You're confused as hell.

“So, John,” you start, “Are you going to introduce me to your friend who was just about to shoot us with a fucking shotgun?”

“This is my cousin, Jade!” he yells out as Jade gets off of him. “I thought you hadn’t made it! After all of the cell towers went down and we couldn’t talk to you, we were pretty scared. This is incredible!”

“I’m happy that you’re alive too! Jake was freaking out way too much when we couldn’t find you guys, but I knew you were okay,” she says. 

“Jake's alive too? I have to tell my dad!” John yells. 

Just as he’s about to walk out the door, the boy that hadn’t said anything yet yells, “Stop!”

Jade gives him a confused look. “What’s wrong, Karkat? This is my family!”

“If this is your family, then who’s the douchebag in the sunglasses?” Karkat asks her. 

“John, if you could so kindly introduce Karkat and I to your friend…” Jade says, obviously trying to appease this Karkat so that she could see the rest of her family.

“Right! This is Dave. His family took Jane, Dad, and I in when they saw how hungry we were and stuff. We haven’t starved since,” John says. Jade comes forward and shakes your hand while Karkat just crosses his arms and huffs. 

“So Jane and your dad are alive?” Jade asks John. He nods, and she squeals. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go see them!”


	7. Chapter 6

==>

The first place Jade goes when she leaves the room next door that no one is occupying. Inside, there are three more strangers. There’s one guy that has to be related to John and Jade somehow. He looks just like John. The only differences are that his hair is just barely styled differently and his eyes are dark green. The other two are both girls. One of the girls has really short hair, and the other girl has hair that’s down to her shoulders. The girl with short hair has green eyes that are very similar to the boy in the room. The other girl has very strange teal colored eyes that are clouded over. Jade turns around and faces John.

“So you already know Jake obviously,” she says first, gesturing to the boy that looks like John. “Dave, this is Jake, my twin brother. Now, both of you meet Kanaya,” she gestures to the girl with short hair, and she waves to us. “And this is Terezi. She’s blind, but she’s also not. Like, she can’t see out of her actual eyes, but she can still see. It’s hard to explain. You’ll see.” Terezi looks directly at John and I and grins. 

“I like your eyes, Dave,” Terezi says to you. “They’re like cherry cough drops. They’re like Karkat’s!” A shiver runs through your body. How the fuck did she know that? John looks at you from the corner of his eye, but doesn’t say anything.

“Anyways, Jake, Uncle Egbert and Jane are still alive too! See, I told you that they were still alive,” Jade says. Jake rolls his eyes and smiles at her. Then, she explains how John’s family came to be with yours.

“It’s nice to see you again, cousin,” Jake says to John. Then to you he says, “It’s a pleasure to meet a member of such a kind household! Thank you for taking care of them, mate.”

“No problem,” you say, not really sure how to answer to the praise. 

Jade steps up. “Now, let’s go see everybody!”

==>

The moment you all walk into the living room where Bro, Mom, and Mr. Egbert are gathered, they fall silent. Mr. Egbert stands up slowly, his eyes wide.

“Jade? Jake?” he asks. Jade runs up and hugs him.

“Hi, Uncle Egbert!” she says as she lets go of him.

“I thought you two were dead,” he says. 

“We had guns. There was no way we were going to die,” Jade says. Mr. Egbert smiles.

“Of course you weren’t,” he says. He looks at Jake and claps a hand on his back. “It’s great to see you.”

“It’s great to see you too, Uncle,” Jake says back to him. 

“So, Egbert, who are these people?” Bro asks Mr. Egbert. 

“I think we should call everyone down before introductions.”

Bro yells for everyone to come down, and soon everybody is in the living room. Rose is eyeing one of the new people suspiciously, but you can’t tell who.

Mr. Egbert smiles. “Alright everyone, these two are my nephew and niece. After we lost connection with them, we didn’t know if they were alive or not. What are the odds that we would both decide to stay in the same house! But I must admit that I don’t know the other three. Would you two care to introduce them?”

“Of course!” Jade exclaims. “This is Karkat, this is Terezi, and this is-”

“Kanaya,” Rose suddenly says. 

Kanaya nods. “Rose,” she says politely.

“You know her?” I ask Rose. “How is that even possible?”

“We talked to each other online,” Rose answers. “We were very good friends. We lost touch, of course, but it’s nice to see you again, Kanaya.”

“It’s a pleasure to see you again as well,” Kanaya says to Rose. 

What the hell is even going on here anymore.

“Well, it’s always nice to meet one of Rose’s friends,” Mom says, going to shake Kanaya’s hand. She’s clearly just as confused as everyone else in the room seems to be, but she’s also the most composed. 

“Well then, it was nice to meet you guys,” Bro started, “but you should probably be on your way. I know you were here first, but we need this house more than you do.”

“Mr. Strider, what are you talking about? This is my family; they’re staying with us,” Mr. Egbert argues.

“I hate to break it to you, but this is five more mouths to feed. They can’t stay with us,” Bro argues back.

“If anything, we should be the ones to leave,” Mr. Egbert says. “They were here first, so we should keep moving and try to find somewhere else to stay.”

“No. This is the only house big enough for all of us, and we’ve already set up for the night,” Bro says.

“There are enough rooms for us to stay here for the night,” Jade says, “and we have enough food to feed ourselves.”

“That settles it then,” Mr. Egbert says. “We can discuss this further in the morning.”

Bro grudgingly agrees and all but stomps up the stairs. John, Jane, Mr. Egbert, Jade, and Jake all gather around the couches and start catching up, so the rest of you Striders, Karkat, Kanaya, and Terezi go back upstairs. You see Kanaya follow Rose into her room, probably to do their own catching up, before you walk into your own. 

You lay on the bed, but you don’t sleep. Instead, you think. Bro is acting strange. He doesn’t just agree with people like this. Mr. Egbert can be convincing, you suppose, but he’s not that convincing. Something’s wrong. His ‘adult talks’ with Mom and Mr. Egbert aren’t for nothing, and with how late you’ve heard them walk down the halls to finally get to bed, it’s something that peaks your interest. You’ve been tempted to eavesdrop, but Bro would catch you before you even got out of bed, let alone into the hall. 

Also, you know a few things about Bro. Sure, he lets people come and take food when they need it, but you thought he would be a little more against taking in more people. After you had gotten hurt bad, you overheard Bro say that without you, at least it would be one less mouth to feed. You had been hurt, but you dismissed it quickly. The apocalypse did things to people’s minds. Even the strongest person you knew, your own father, wasn’t spared from the slight madness that everybody now carried. You wonder how it’s changed you. You wonder how it’s changed John.

You have a feeling that John was the classic nerd. Slight buck teeth, thick black glasses, love of shitty old movies, the whole nine yards. You’re lucky the Strider-Lalonde family was blessed with 20/20 vision. He also talked about being lonely back before the apocalypse. You know the feeling. Although you were the better twin when it came to socializing, you didn’t have many friends. The only one in your family to actually have friends was Roxy, and a lot of that was due to her drinking habits.

You had never wanted to associate with any crowds, opting for the mysterious, friendless, cool kid take on life, but you couldn’t help but feel jealous. Whatever. You shouldn’t really care anymore. You shake your head to clear it of these small, random thoughts. There are bigger things to think about anyway. As you refuse to think about those bigger things, you slowly drift to sleep.

You wake up to a blood curdling scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slowly but surely, this will get done. I promise.


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while.

==>

You immediately grab your katana and run downstairs to find the source. When you find it, you stop dead in your tracks. Bro is kneeling on the ground, over Mom. Mom is gasping now, tears running down her pale face. There’s blood coming from her stomach. Through a window of the house, you see a bulky shadow running. You waste no more time inside and run out of the closest door.

You easily catch up to the demon. He looks brute, but that slows him down. You attack him and send him back to Derse easily- probably too easily. You know something else is going on, but you don’t really care all that much right now. You run back to the house to find everyone is awake now, standing around your mom. Rose, Roxy, and Dirk are standing closest to her, with the others standing farther back. Mom is lying still on the ground.

“You can bring people back to life! What the fuck are you doing just standing there?” Bro suddenly yells at Jane. She jumps in surprise and walks in towards Mom. Her eyes are wide and full of tears as she places her hand over Mom’s heart. She closes her eyes, and then her eyebrows begin to furrow. 

“Something’s wrong,” she says.

Bro looks at her, anger clear on his face. “What do you mean something’s wrong? Just do what you did with John!”

“That’s the problem! I can’t do anything,” Jane says. She sighs defeatedly. “I can’t save her. I’m sorry. That demon, I think he did something to her. There’s nothing I can do.”

Bro practically growls and storms away. You want to follow, but you also know that that would be a bad idea. You know when Bro wants to be alone. He wouldn’t talk to you anyway.

You suddenly find yourself not knowing what to do. All throughout the apocalypse, your family has been untouchable, indestructible, and now your mom is dead. Roxy has already left, probably to mourn in her room. Dirk has also wandered off, probably to find Bro- he’s always been better at comforting him. Kanaya has Rose engulfed in her arms with Rose crying into Kanaya’s shoulder. The others are just staring at Mom, not knowing how to react or what to do now. Even Karkat has his mouth shut, his usual glare replaced with an expression of pain. This isn’t the first time he’s seen someone die, and you can tell this is bringing back some unpleasant memories. You need to do something.

Knowing Bro won’t want to do it, you set off to make a grave for your mom. With a shovel you find in the shed, you find a secluded place on the side of the house and start digging. Everyone must have figured out what you’re doing because nobody comes to find you. When the hole is deep enough, you go back into the house to get your mom. No one remains in the kitchen where she lies. Not knowing what else to do to not get blood on your only shirt, you take it off and pick up your mom. 

You find yourself shaking as you carry her to her grave, but it’s not from the weight. When you get back to the grave, Dirk is waiting for you. As he helps you lower her body, Roxy and Rose arrive and stand at the foot of the grave. Bro is nowhere to be seen. Roxy chokes out a sob when her body hits the bottom. The four of you stand around her, not wanting to cover her just yet.

Rose takes a deep breath and starts, “Mom, I know we never got along very well, but you’re still my mom. There are so many things I didn’t get to tell you, and I’m sorry. I’m going to miss you. We all are.”

You know it’s over now. Dirk isn’t one to be sentimental like this, Roxy is already sobbing and won’t be able to say anything, and you just want to get this blood off of you. If it stays on you much longer, you might puke. Roxy and Rose wander away as Dirk picks up the shovel and starts to bury your mom. You meet his eyes and he nods, allowing you to go wash off.

You go back into the kitchen and find some small hand towels. You try turning on the sink, praying that clean water will run, but nothing happens. You sigh and find one of your bottles filled with questionably clean water and pour some onto a towel, washing the blood off of your stomach and chest. You try to ignore the fact that this is your mom’s blood, but obviously you fail and your eyes well up with tears- the first in a long time. Thank god for your shades because John chooses this moment to walk into the kitchen. His eyes widen when he sees you, and he looks away with pink cheeks, reminding you that you’re not wearing a shirt. 

“I was just, uh, coming to clean up,” he says, keeping his eyes averted. You toss him another towel from your pile. He jumps when he sees it coming toward him and barely manages to catch it. 

You smirk and pick up the water bottle. “I’m gonna toss this to you too. Will you be ready for it?”

John rolls his eyes. “Yeah yeah, whatever.” When you toss the bottle to him, he catches it with ease. “I used to play baseball before. You just caught me off guard the first time.”

“Really?” you say as he wets the towel and starts to clean up the blood on the floor. Your mom’s blood. You swallow dryly and continue, “I never pegged you for a baseball guy.”

“I mean I only played until I was thirteen, so I never really had the chance to get good or anything, but I was pretty decent. Not to brag or anything,” he says with a smug look on his face.

“Is that why you use a hammer?” you ask, making the connections between a hammer and a bat.

He glances at the small hammer in his belt loop. “I guess so. It’s not as easy, obviously, but it’s not that different- especially when I’m using bigger hammers.”

“So you like bigger hammers?” you joke, hoping he catches your innuendo.

His face gets red before he bursts out laughing. “I guess you could say that.”

You and John continue chatting idly while you finish cleaning up. When you get done before he does, you put back on your (thankfully) blood-free shirt. You stay as he finishes cleaning to keep talking. Talking to him almost makes you forget the horrors of the morning. But as soon as he stands up, holding the blood-soaked towel out away from him, you lose it. You burst out of the kitchen and up to ‘your’ room. You slam the door and lock it, finally allowing tears to well in your eyes as you sink to the floor against the door.

How could you let this happen? How is she dead? What’s going to happen now? 

You have no idea what to do.

==>

A knock sounds on your door a few hours later. You don’t move from your spot against said door.

“Dave, you need to come downstairs,” Rose calls through, “We’re having a meeting.”

You sigh as you stand, picking your shades up- you had thrown them to the floor in anger- and sliding them on your face. At least you can hide your puffy eyes. Continuously crying and staring blankly at the closed curtains that were in front of you didn’t mix well. Fighting your growing headache, you open the door. Rose is already gone. You see Dirk at the top of the stairs, obviously having been summoned by Rose as well. He turns toward you and you get a clear view of his blotchy red face. He waits as you catch up to him before descending the stairs.

“You look like shit,” he says to you.

You manage to smirk. “Could say the same to you.”

The two of you find everyone gathered in the living room on various couches and chairs. You sit on a couch between Rose and Bro, and Dirk sits on the other side of Bro. A silence has settled over the room.

“Okay, so y’all are here because we need to talk about a few things,” Bro suddenly says. You’re surprised at how strong he sounds considering what just happened earlier today. You don’t want to think about it. “Rose will be able to explain better than I can.” 

Rose takes a breath before beginning. “First, a few things about demons. The Egberts know this, but for our newcomers: we can see demons. Well, we can’t actually see them, but we can see their shadows through the special sunglasses that we’re wearing. Yes, we’re wearing these for a reason, not because we’re douchebags. We have also come to learn that the demons are concentrating in Death Valley, but we don’t know why. There is a so-called ‘sweet spot’ where we would be far enough away to not attract any demons from the Valley but close enough that the demons are attracted to only Death Valley and not us. After the events of today, I have determined that we are too close to Death Valley and we need to retreat back past the California border.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Kanaya cuts in. “We’ve been in this house for months and haven’t had a single demon attack.”

“I might be able to help with explaining that,” Bro butts in. “We’d already confided in Daddy Egbert about this, but it’s time to come clean with everyone. We’ve suspected that there’d been a demon trailing us for a while. Couple weeks at least. We stopped in this house longer than we normally would’ve for one because we thought this might be a ‘sweet spot,’ but also because we wanted to see if a demon really was following us. Turns out we were right.”

“That explains all of the ‘adult meetings’ you’ve been having,” Roxy says. “So what are we going to do?” You’ve been wondering the same thing.

“We should stay right where we are,” Mr. Egbert adds. “There’s enough room for all of us to stay, and it appears to be a ‘sweet spot,’ so it’s the safest right now.”

“In case you didn’t notice, a lady just got fucking filleted in the kitchen!” Karkat shouts. You inhale sharply. “I don’t know what ‘safe’ is to you, but that definitely isn’t my definition!”

“Karkat!” Jade whispers sharply to him.

“What? It’s true!” Karkat doesn’t lower his voice. “I don’t care if it’s your family. I don’t care if it’s your friends or whatever. We shouldn’t stay here! I don’t want to end up dead!”

You can’t do this anymore. He’s talking about your mom. You stand and sprint away, leaving everyone staring as you run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was a ride. I'm going to try to update more often since it's summer and I finally got a new computer. Thanks for reading!


End file.
